Business ‘can help end strife’
BUSINESS needs to take the lead in helping to resolve labour strife in SA by adopting a process of continuing social dialogue with workers as well as seeking collective solutions to unemployment, says Vic van Vuuren, the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) director in SA.
SA’s economy is buffeted regularly by work stoppages and violence, and industrial action is often viewed as seasonal.
But the ILO recommends proactive policy intervention to lift productivity and to reduce conflict.
Its 2012-13 global wage report calls for more emphasis on policies that promote a close connection between an increase in labour productivity and the growth of workers’ compensation.
In an interview yesterday, Mr van Vuuren said that improving this connection by a process of early dialogue and strategic planning could prevent the loss of work days to strike action.
Mr van Vuuren, a former chief operating officer at Business Unity SA, said the splintering of business groups in SA should not be a hindrance to achieving change as the different groups had enough “networking power” to come together.
“Business must come to the party with a sympathetic ear to poverty at the bottom,” he said.
In April Mr van Vuuren had warned that forcing employers into “steep and unaffordable” wage settlements would curb the growth of companies, but could also mean job losses the economy did not need.
Yesterday he said the current deadlocks in the continuing strikes were not worse than expected, as strikes and high demands had become a regular “silly season” in SA. “It is the same historical way of dealing with conditions of employment. There has got to be a process where there is engagement on a continual basis, else we will have one fight after the next.”
While more internships for matriculants and apprenticeships would provide solutions, Mr van Vuuren said the model of businesses putting certain amounts into their own social responsible investment funds would be more beneficial if money was collectively placed by businesses into broader initiatives, such as a jobs fund. He said CEO salaries in SA may not be as high as some salaries elsewhere in the world, but the wage gap continued to entrench negative perceptions.
“Business must come to the party and put something on the table to change perceptions,” he said.
Hermann Nieuwoudt, director at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, said a social pact between labour, the government and employment had not happened, warning that “we are now in a situation where you are getting a breakdown, which is close to anarchy if the courts are not obeyed.
“We need to revisit that and agree on a new, or modern version of this social pact. If we don’t, then utter lawlessness will take place from time to time,” Mr Nieuwoudt said.